Thursday, July 25, 2013

Embroidered Simplicity 1873

I am absolutely giddy to share this dress with you. It was inspired by a vintage dress I saw on Pinterest, embroidered on trains and in hotels rooms all over Europe, and I took the photos while on The Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg.

The Inspiration

I saw this dress on Pinterest and actually gasped out loud. I knew I had to make my own version. It originally comes from Karla's Closet, a fashion blogger in LA. She found it at Shareen Vintage in Los Angeles.

Modifications

I made a few modifications, from what I can tell in these photos.

1. The inspiration dress had most of the gathering in the back, creating a bustle effect. I don't need any extra help making my rear end look large, so I decided to stick with the pleats that are evenly distributed in Simplicity 1873.

2. The embroidery on Karla's dress cuts off at the seam. They embroidered the pieces before stitching the garment together and also included piping at the waist seam. I wanted a continuous line of embroidery, so I opted to do it after the fact and exclude the piping.

3. I chose to do a sightly longer dress. I find it more versatile to wear to the office.

Isn't it marvelous?! I am really pleased with this one. I am planning on doing a little tutorial soon to show you how I did the embroidery work on the dress. So stay tuned!

Now I leave you with a picture of me twirling in front of the "16 going on 17" gazebo from The Sound of Music. It's my favorite song from the movie, and I just had to do it.

It's beautiful! I love embroidering on clothing, I'm currently stitching a couple of swallows onto a sky blue dress - I also went for sewing together the dress first just incase I sewed it together and it looked wonky or something! Your shoes are awesome too!

I just found your blog through We Sew Retro. I absolutely love your dress, and it's a big inspiration for using embroidery in my dressmaking. I'm looking forward to your tutorial on how you did the embroidery on this gorgeous dress.

Is the embroidery hand done or is it machine done? I have a Bernina that does embroidery and am thinking this would be wonderful to do. I love the dress..I think I might add a little piping or binding around the neckline and sleeves and maybe do something with the hemline. Maybe a piping? Or a little lace, perhaps? Anyway, I love it!

Hi Bette! The embroidery is hand done. Machine would be nice, and much faster! The piping sounds like a really fun idea. I just started using piping and have really enjoyed adding it to garments as a detail. Happy sewing!

This beautiful! I also pinned the original inspiration dress for my "to do someday file". Good for you for actually doing it! There's hope for us all! Also just realized you're also from Austin so there's even the possibility I could chance upon the dress in person one day